


Still Alive

by whooshboomtree (IttyBittyDungeonTree)



Category: Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Forte doesn't know how to people, Gen, Light Angst, Rock is convinced Forte's mind is an enigma, like really really really loosely, loosely based on Megaman Unlimited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 16:01:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IttyBittyDungeonTree/pseuds/whooshboomtree
Summary: Rock was fully surprised to still be alive after a run-in with Wily's latest and greatest creation. He was even more surprised to wake up in the middle of nowhere with Forte of all people standing over him.





	Still Alive

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came about at like 10pm while clearing out my watch later list, where I stumbled across a saved video of the final boss and ending of Megaman Unlimited. This is very VERY loosely based on that, because I found the notion that Forte would save his rival's life just to spite Dr. Wily really interesting. I know virtually nothing about the rest of Unlimited though, hence the 'very very loosely' part.  
That and I just like to pretend that Forte's way more complex and interesting than the games make him out to be, because I can and nobody can stop me.

Everything hurt.

Everything hurt.

It hurt so bad that he could barely breathe, or maybe that was just because all but two of his ribs were shattered. His shoulders ached, and his skull throbbed, and his stomach burned, and his left arm felt like it was on fire- or what remained of his arm anyway, system scans throwing him all kinds of panicked alerts and question marks about the fact that ninety percent of that particular limb no longer existed.

At the same time, if he was still feeling pain and getting system scan alerts, that probably meant he was alive, which was shocking.

“So you just gonna lay there and bleed to death or what?”

The gruff voice was finally enough to jolt Rock the rest of the way back to consciousness, and he snapped his eyes open with a start to see a familiar, tattooed face staring down at him. Instinct had him trying to jerk backward, only to cry out in pain when every servo in his body and almost every rib practically screamed in protest at the movement. “Well don’t do that,” the robot standing over him said with a derisive snort.

“What the hell are you doing here, Forte?” Rock groaned as he laid his head back.

Forte didn’t answer, but Forte also hadn’t walked up and kicked him in the broken ribs yet, or just shot him in the face for that matter, so that was weird. The Wilybot looked relatively worse for the wear, but nowhere near as injured as Rock was, and probably with a good bit of fight still left in him if Rock had to guess. “I’m assuming you met my youngest brother,” Forte said after an awkwardly long silence.

“If you mean the tall blond guy, then yeah,” Rock replied. “I can see the family resemblance, what with the whole putting all their effort into trying to violently murder me thing. Where’s Blues?”

“Dunno,” Forte replied with a shrug, sitting down on a stone nearby and reaching down to give a sleepy-looking Gospel a scratch on the head. Now that Rock’s optics were beginning to clear, he was able to take in the landscape around them, which was...not much more than a few scrubby trees and a lot of dirt, if he was being honest.Wily always did have a thing for building his bases smack in the middle of absolutely nowhere. “Saw him partway into the fortress, but he looked bad. Virus must’ve been getting to him. Didn’t see him after.”

Rock swore under his breath, propping himself up on one elbow even though no part of his body wanted any part of sitting up or moving. “I gotta go back and look for him,” he said, managing to make it onto his hands- hand- and knees. “I’m sure his systems couldn’t handle the virus as well as mine.”

“Don’t bother.”

“What do you mean ‘don’t bother’?!” Rock said, raising his voice slightly. “I’m not just leaving my brother in there, especially if he’s susceptible to the virus and especially not if that blond guy is running around in there! I have to-”

“I said don’t bother!” Forte interrupted, fixing Rock with a sharp glare. “There’s nothing left of the damn fortress. If prototype didn’t make it out before it blew up, he’s dead and buried under rubble somewhere. You’re damn lucky you made it out at all and you’re damn lucky I found you when I did.”

Rock had opened his mouth for a sharp retort, only for anger to quickly give way to confusion. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“I found you unconscious just outside of the fortress,” Forte replied. “Your mutt was trying to drag you off somewhere safe and doing a poor job of it.”

Rock looked down, only now noticing Rush sound asleep at his side, visibly injured, but alive, and seemingly unbothered by Forte and Gospel’s presence. “I figured someone oughta take you somewhere that wasn’t right next to an exploding death fortress,” Forte went on. “So I took you somewhere not-there. You’re welcome.”

“I...you…” Rock blinked dazedly, looking down at Rush again for a moment before looking back up at Forte. “You...saved my life.”

“Yeah. Like I said, you’re welcome.”

“Why?”

Forte started slightly, averting his gaze to glare down at the ground. “It’s complicated,” he muttered.

“Try me,” Rock said dryly. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not going anywhere fast.”

His head was still spinning, but at the very least he had to assume that if Rush wasn’t pacing and growling and doing everything possible to put himself between Forte and Rock, Forte probably wasn’t much of a threat right now. “So Infinity really kicked your ass, huh?” Forte said, which definitely wasn’t an actual answer to Rock’s question.

“Is that what he’s called?” Rock asked, and Forte simply nodded in response. “Y...yeah, he was…” He felt a shiver run through him at the uncomfortably fresh memory of walking into the darkened room and finding himself face-to-face with glowing red eyes and a blank, eerily focused expression, the ache from his missing arm suddenly all too apparent. “He was definitely...like nothing I’ve ever faced before.”

He winced, a wave of dizziness washing over him, and seeing as how Forte didn’t seem in the mood for a fight he decided it was probably safe enough to lay back down for a while. “Jeez, quit whining,” he heard Forte say, and he was sure the other robot was rolling his eyes. “Here.”

There was a clank, and a quiet rattle of metal rolling across the ground, and a moment later Rock felt a canister bump against his leg. “Seriously?” he said, looking from the E-tank to Forte and back again.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll gladly take it back.”

“Not on your life.” With a painful effort, Rock sat up just enough to grab the E-tank, shuffling around so that he could lean his shoulders against Rush’s side and at least partially prop himself up while he drank. “And you never did answer my question.”

“Guess I didn’t,” Forte said with a shrug. Throughout the whole conversation, his expression had remained pulled into its usual scowl, but it was more...neutral than usual, somehow. More tired, maybe, or at the very least not so full of the near-frantic fury he’d tended to show every other time they’d met. “So did you run away or what?”

“Not...exactly,” Rock replied, taking another drink of the E-tank with a thoughtful frown. It wasn’t nearly enough to take the pain away entirely, but it was at least making him feel less woozy. “It didn’t...even seem like I could damage him, he was deflecting my shots with his arms like it was nothing. He was faster than anyone I’ve ever met, even Quickman, and every time he hit me it was like colliding with a truck. I think at some point after he tore my arm off, I blacked out for a minute, and when I woke up he was just...gone, and the fortress was collapsing. I barely made it outside before I passed out again.”

Forte nodded, leaning down to give Gospel a scratch under the chin instead of answering, though Rock could see that his whole body was as tense as a coiled spring. “So you put up a fight after all,” Forte said after another awkwardly long silence. “Which means Wily was wrong per usual. He always did underestimate you.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Shut up.”

Rock shook his head, not sensing any true vitrol in Forte’s tone. “So I’m going to assume Infinity was built with the express purpose of terminating me with extreme prejudice.”

“You and everything else,” Forte snorted. “But definitely you first.” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes, his brow still furrowed with tension. “Infinity was intended to be Wily’s final, ultimate creation. Old bastard kept saying he planned on having the blond idiot divide the world by zero after cutting you to pieces.”

Rock felt his blood run cold at that, the implications hitting him like...well honestly like one of Infinity’s uppercuts. “Then if he’s still out there somewhere we have a big problem,” he murmured. “He didn’t even have a weapon when he fought me and I could barely touch him.”

“You only touched him at all because he’s not finished,” Forte pointed out. “Wily didn’t plan on unleashing that monstrosity for at least another year.”

“Which is why Blues led me to the fortress,” Rock said, his chest tightening once again at the thought of his brother. “He must’ve known something.”

“And who do you think tipped him off about that ‘something’?” Forte asked.

Rock frowned, some part of him wanting to accuse Forte of lying, but his expression was still as neutral as before- scowling, but neutral- and if anyone knew what Wily was up to, a Wilybot seemed the most likely candidate. “Forte, quit beating around the bush,” Rock said. “I know you hate me, everyone knows you hate me, you’ve tried to kill me more times than I can count, so why? Why give Blues and I a chance to fight back? Why save my life when you could’ve just left me to die there and finally had the thing you want most in the world, or for that matter just wait around and let Infinity eventually rip me in half?”

“You idiot,” Forte growled, some of the usual ferocity starting to creep back into his tone. “It was never about you being dead. That’s what he wants, not me.”

“Then why are you always trying to kill me?” Rock shot back, sounding more snappish than he really intended.

“Because I want to beat you!” Forte shouted. “It’s not about getting you out of the way, it’s about proving that I’m fucking better than you! I don’t care if you live or die as long as the whole damn world knows that I’m superior to your dumb stupid ass!”

Rock’s only response was to stare at Forte open-mouthed, trying and failing to process the logic in that statement. “Of course you wouldn’t fucking understand,” Forte muttered. “You’re such a naive fucking idiot.”

He stood up, and only now did Rush lift his head with a growl of warning as Forte stalked over to leer down at his rival with his fists clenched and his teeth gritted. “I can’t prove that I’m better than you if you’re fucking dead,” he practically hissed. “And it doesn’t prove shit to fight someone who’s at anything less than their full strength. That’s why I saved your sorry fucking life. Be fucking grateful for it.”

Rock had tensed reflexively as Forte approached him, fully expecting to be either kicked in the stomach or shot in the face, but after a few more seconds Forte turned away and stalked back over to sit down next to Gospel again, his shoulders still shaking with unspent anger. “Is that...why you seem to hate him so much?” Rock asked, unsure how to process the thought that Forte had somehow come up with an entirely selfish reason to save someone else’s life. “Infinity, I mean. Because...he’s supposed to be better than you.”

“Yeah,” Forte practically spat. “He is. As far as Wily’s concerned, now that he has Infinity, I may as well be null and void. Old bastard went and fucking replaced me with that stupid blond moron.”

He still sounded furious, but Rock swore that there was just a hint of sadness in Forte’s tone, and maybe even just a trace of hurt behind all the anger and hatred in his expression. “I...I’m sorry,” Rock said softly. “I’m...I’m sure that-”

“Don’t fucking bother,” Forte interrupted. “I don’t want your damn pity.”

“Right…” Rock shook his head, crumpling up the empty E-tank and slowly sitting up the rest of the way in spite of his body’s continued protests. “Well either way, you did save my life. I guess I owe you one.”

Forte just grunted, and Rock rolled his eyes, wondering how it was even possible to program so much antisocial grumpiness into one unit. Even Blues wasn’t this much of a sourpuss on a bad day, and that was saying something. “I need to get home,” Rock said. “Dad and Roll are probably worried sick. And if Infinity’s still out there, I need to get repaired and figure out a way to get rid of him before Wily finishes whatever he’s planning.”

Using Rush to prop himself up, and with a great deal of pain and effort, Rock slowly managed to get to his feet, though his posture was still hunched over and he wasn’t at all sure how long he could stay upright. “Oh don’t kid yourself,” Forte sneered, getting to his feet and striding closer. “You’ll collapse before you make it halfway home and I’m sure your teleportation system is as shot as mine is or you would’ve been outta here ages ago.”

Without even asking, Forte grabbed Rock’s arm and pulled it over his own shoulder to support most of his weight, while Rush padded over to Rock’s other side and nudged up against him to help him balance. “Don’t question it,” Forte grunted when Rock just stared at him wide-eyed. “Or I’ll drop you and your fucking dog can carry you home. Now move your ass before I change my mind.”

Rock just nodded mutely, too startled to even come up with a retort. Instead, he allowed the next several hours of walking to pass in silence, diverting the few resources he had left to patching the worst of his internal injuries and trying not to think too hard about all of the worst places Blues could be right now. Blues was fine. Blues had to be fine, he was Blues, and Blues was always fine.

He was also trying not to think too hard about what they were going to do about Infinity, lest his legs start shaking so hard he lost what little ability to walk he had left.

“We’re getting pretty close,” Rock finally said when they were less than a quarter mile from the small mobile lab Dr. Light had set up. “I think I can walk on my own the rest of the way.”

Forte nodded, letting go of Rock’s arm and pausing a moment to make sure Rock wouldn’t immediately fall on his face before stepping back. “Then Gospel and I are gonna head off,” Forte said.

“You could come with me,” Rock offered. “I’m sure Dr. Light would at least give you some basic repairs. I mean...you did save my life.”

“No thanks,” Forte snorted. “I still have some pride left.”

He started to turn away, and Rock frowned, some part of him unable to help fretting about Forte wandering off on his own in an injured state, especially with the possibility of Infinity still running around. No amount of pleading or reasoning was going to change Forte’s stubborn mind though, of that Rock was certain. “Well will you at least think about helping when we have to take out Infinity?” Rock blurted out.

Forte stopped, looking back over his shoulder and fixing Rock with a glare, but he didn’t say anything in response. “I know you’re not all about protecting people,” Rock went on. “But I mean...if you need a reason to help save the world, I guess just remember that you’re one of the people who lives on it.” He paused, some part of him wondering if he’d regret this in the future. “And once all this is over, we can have a real fight. Just the two of us, at our full strength, no outside interference. Then we can see who’s really the superior robot.”

That, at least, seemed to catch Forte’s attention, a grin finally pulling at the Wilybot’s lips. “You realize you basically just offered me a chance to kill you.”

“Only after the world’s safe and only if you earn it,” Rock replied with a shrug. “Besides, like I said, I owe you one.”

“Huh.” Forte shook his head, turning away and once again starting off with Gospel padding close at his side. “I’ll think about it.”

He didn’t say anything more, and Rock just shook his head, watching silently until Forte was out of sight before turning and slowly starting to limp his way the remaining quarter mile toward Dr. Light’s base. He still wasn’t entirely sure how to make sense of Forte’s motivations, and he had a whole host of problems to worry about between his own repairs, finding Blues, and finding a way to deal with Infinity. But at the same time he couldn’t help but feel that maybe, just maybe, he understood the temperamental Wilybot just a little better now.

And maybe, just maybe, deep down, somewhere far, far below the all the surface hatred and explosive anger and raging desire to blow things up, there was a little more to him than just a reckless force of wanton destruction after all.


End file.
